Today on the CF blog we present a few handy tips to keep your garden free of pets. Well, we say pets. We basically mean dogs. There really isn't much that you can do about a really determined cat, except for roll over and accept it as your lord and master.
But dogs, now...
It isn't in a dog's natural makeup to appreciate pretty flowers, sadly. They're not going to stop rampaging across your lawn to think "oh, I mustn't tread on the begonias, they're so artfully arranged." So it's up to you to gently, firmly or downright violently deter them from digging up your flowerbeds. Here's how:
1) If it's your own dog, make sure he has other things to do! The most common cause of destructive behaviour by dogs is simply boredom. If your dog gets to play, go for walks, and has some toys of his own to wrestle (a bit of rope with a knot in it, or a lump of bone from the butcher's should do it!), then he's less likely to go hyper and start pulling up plants.
2) Make the flowerbeds unappealing. Some smells are paticularly unwelcome in the canine nose. One good one to go for is a mix of pepper and mustard -- get powdered mustard or grind some mustard seeds yourself, and sprinkle it on the earth around your flowers. Make sure you top-up the mixture regularly to keep the soil smelling of "KEEP OFF"
3) Finally, a more expensive solution is to get your hands on a motion-triggered sprinkler system -- a little elaborate maybe, but it should do the trick. If dear old Rover gets a good soaking every time he wanders near the flowerbeds, then he'll soon learn not to do so....except maybe on really sunny days!
